The first floor was simple. Thousands of interwoven tunnels filled with goblins. The second floor was slightly more difficult than the first. It too was filled with goblins and tunnels, but the weapons they wielded were more varied. Instead of just short swords, they wielded spears, s.h.i.+elds, maces, bows, etc. For newcomer ascenders with no combat experience, this changeup made things significantly more difficult. Dealing with a few goblins were simple for modern humans; goblins were short and frail compared to a tall and strong human, but once they started using different weapons, things became harder.

To Jason, this was nothing. He'd fought against all types of weapons and monsters. He swept through the second floor without breaking a sweat. As luck would have it, he acquired a crude wooden buckler while making his way through the floor. It was a c.r.a.ppy s.h.i.+eld, but a s.h.i.+eld nonetheless. Using two short swords wasn't uncomfortable, but using a s.h.i.+eld was second nature to him. With it, his combat prowess immediately doubled.

A few hours later he reached the third floor. He reached level 7 after slaughtering every goblin he came across. For every level he would gain 5 stat points. His plan for stat distribution was thus: 1 to strength, 1 to agility, 1 to endurance, 2 to vitality. After several decades of research and testing, this was found to be the best stat allocation for a tank.

Jason felt a strong sense of familiarity when he inspected his surroundings. If he were to rank which floors he was most intimate with, the third floor would definitely rank among the top five. In the past, Jason pa.s.sed the trial to become a battles.h.i.+elds guild member. For a few years he was tasked with farming the third floor for materials. It was only after the battles.h.i.+elds guild disbanded that he started to climb the floors.

He was in a giant cavern filled with ravines. Beams of light fell down from holes in the ceiling, giving a bit of light. Attached to the walls of the cave was wooden scaffolding reaching multiple stories high. An incredibly complex system of pulleys and ropes could be seen connected to the scaffolding.

The air smelled of metal; mainly copper and iron. The sound of clanging echoed off the cavern walls, along with the shrieking of goblins. Indeed, the goblins had a major operation underway. The third floor was a ma.s.sive underground mine packed full of the little creatures.

For low level guilds, the third floor was incredibly profitable. There was a special mob here called 'goblin miner' which had a chance of dropping copper, tin, or iron ore. These low level guilds had multiple teams a.s.signed here to farm goblin miners and sell the drops to corporations on the outside.

It wasn't apparent at first, but the towers were a goldmine. An infinite amount of materials could be brought out; wood, iron, copper, tin, coal, steel, mithril, etc. Now that two decades have past since the arrival of the towers, a complex economy had formed around the tower. The materials were farmed by guilds and purchased by governments and corporations. And that was just for materials. Skills books, equipment, pets, mounts, and land within the tower were much more expensive. Much more.

All of these thoughts spun through Jason's head as he glanced around. He stood on top of the scaffolding and got a good look of the cavern. Already he could see teams from different guilds fighting goblins for their loot. He recognized most of them as compet.i.tors from the past.

Compet.i.tion between guilds was fierce inside the tower. There was no oversight here; no government, no military, no police. In the beginning, because things were so profitable, there were countless fights between teams leading to innumerable deaths. Eventually the guilds came to an agreement and farmed in designated locations only. But not all locations were equal. Some spots had rare sp.a.w.ns, more drops, better terrain, etc.

To prevent further fighting, it was decided that there would be a compet.i.tion every month. Once a month, the guilds would gather together and undergo a compet.i.tion between each other. The guild that won first place was allowed to pick first from the plethora of farming locations. The second guild was next, and so on so forth. The weaker guilds could only complain inwardly. Of course, only the low-tier guilds fought over the farming spots on the third floor. The mid-tier, upper-tier, and top-tier guilds didn't care at all.

As Jason's thoughts reached this point, he couldn't help but frown. If he started killing goblins here, it would be inevitable that there would be conflict between him and the guilds. He was much too weak to be a threat to even low-tier guilds at the moment, so in the end he decided to skip this floor and head to the next one.

He received glares as he pa.s.sed by farming teams. Only after seeing his c.r.a.ppy equipment did they give a disdainful smirk before ignoring him. He knew what they were thinking. When the towers arrived, professions such as blacksmithing exploded in popularity. After all, who best to craft equipment with the materials from the tower than blacksmiths?

As a result, as the years pa.s.sed, blacksmiths became increasingly desired. They now made just as much money as top ascenders. As the skill level of blacksmiths rose, they were able to craft better equipment than the equipment dropped on the lower floors. For someone like Jason who wore goblin equipment, it meant two things: he was dirt poor and had no guild. Why would these farming teams worry about a newbie like him?

Jason thought he might be yelled at for encroaching on these team's territory, but his equipment led to him being ignored. He only shrugged in response. Better this than getting into pointless arguments.

Just as Jason was about to enter through the portal to the fourth floor, the cavern suddenly shook. Pieces of rock fell from the ceiling and crashed into the ground, with some even killing a few goblins. The shaking died down a moment later, but not before a roar echoed through the cavern.

"Oh?" Jason paused. He recognized the roar. It came from a rare monster called a rock golem. While the goblins were mining, they would occasionally wake up an earth elemental. An elemental was an unintelligent creature of nature, and the rock golem was of the earth attribute. If he recalled correctly, the rock golem that sp.a.w.ned here was a novice grade field boss.

Monsters were categorized by two things: their rank and grade. The ranks went from common, elite, field boss, and raid boss. The grades went from trainee, beginner, novice, apprentice, veteran, expert, master, grandmaster, and hero. The goblins Jason had fought were trainee common monsters while the rock golem that just sp.a.w.ned was a novice field boss. The two couldn't even be compared.

Jason remembered that news of a rock golem sp.a.w.ning spread on the day he pa.s.sed his trial. The farming teams on the third floor tried fighting the rock golem, but even with all of them combined they were no match for it. In the end, an ascender from a higher floor killed it.

Just as Jason was about to leave this mess behind by entering the portal, he froze. Wait, the rock golem drops an incredibly rare skill for tanks. If I pa.s.s this up…

He clenched his hands as he fell into thought. As of this moment he was incredibly weak. Even if he did manage to kill the rock golem, would the farming teams let him leave with the loot? He was alone, while they were many.

"Well, I'll check it out at least." He turned around and made his way over to the rock golem.